Over the Hills and Far Away
by Midnight Marionette
Summary: This is a song fic based on the Nightwish song by the same title. A man sleeps wit his best friends wife, and then is accused of robery. He can't give his alibi, it would kill his friend, so he is sent to jail for ten years.


**A/N: **Okay, I am currently on a big Nightwish kick, and this is their favorite song of mine. It speaks so clearly to me I can't help but write a song fic for it. I believe there are so many ways this story could be justified, put to condemnation, and so many facets that the song can't explain. Please, enjoy my telling of how things went. I purposely used names of people from the band…it's set in Finland for good measure. LOL.

DISCLAIMER!!!: This sin't my song. I merely fleshed it out and added an ending...and gave them names.

"They came for him one winter's night.  
Arrested, he was bound.  
They said there'd been a robbery,  
his pistol had been found.  
They marched him to the station house,  
he waited for the dawn.  
And as they led him to the dock,  
he knew that he'd been wronged.  
"You stand accused of robbery,"  
he heard the bailiff say.  
He knew without an alibi,  
tomorrow's light would mourn his freedom.  
Over the hills and far away,  
for ten long years he'll count the days.  
Over the mountains and the seas,  
a prisoner's life for him there'll be.  
He knew that it would cost him dear,  
but yet he dare not say.  
Where he had been that fateful night,  
a secret it must stay.  
He had to fight back tears of rage.  
His heart beat like a drum.  
For with the wife of his best friend,  
he spent his final night of freedom.  
Over the hills and far away,  
he swears he will return one day.  
Far from the mountains and the seas,  
back in her arms he swears he'll be.  
Over the hills and far away.  
Over the hills and,  
over the hills and,  
over the hills and far away.  
Each night within his prison cell,  
he looks out through the bars.  
He reads the letters that she wrote.

One day he'll know the taste of freedom.  
Over the hills and far away,  
she prays he will return one day.  
As sure as the rivers reach the seas,  
back in his arms he swears she'll be.  
Over the hills and far away,  
he swears he will return one day.  
Far from the mountains and the seas,  
back in her arms he swears he'll be.  
Over the hills and far away,  
she prays he will return one day.  
As sure as the rivers reach the seas,  
back in his arms is where she'll be.  
Over the hills,  
over the hills and far away.  
Over the hills,  
over the hills and far away."

Emppu watched through the crack of the door incredulously as he witnessed something despicable. Rage and pain welled in him, but he didn't run in to stop what was happening.

_Two-faced. Both of them. He's supposed to be my best friend. She's my wife!_

He bit back the intense pain of betrayal and hurried form the house. He entered his best friend's home, and picked up his friend's pistol.

_Revenge, Tuomas, revenge for stealing Tarja._

XXX

Tuomas lay next to Tarja, relaxed and exhausted. He let out a contented sigh, and Tarja smiled at him. He wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve her…

As soon as he thought that, a pang of guilt went through him. He didn't deserve her. She was Emppu's wife, arranged marriage or not. And Emppu was his best friend.

_So I'm actually a scumbag for doing this to him._

"You need to go." Tarja said softly. It wasn't a question. They couldn't be found here, not now.

"Yes." He said, "One day we'll be able to stay together." He said this wistfully.

Every once in while, he felt a terrifying hate for Emppu burn through him. But it was replaced with self-loathing. Why should he hate Emppu for something he couldn't have controlled?

He dressed, and slipped from the house, glancing back, before walking the short distance, shivering from the cold. It had begun to snow again…

He let himself into the unlocked house, and collapsed onto his bed, sleeping soundly.

Emppu looked around at the broken glass, the remains of the window he'd shot. He felt a slow rage burning through him, directing it at this store. He had taken a barrel of gunpowder, only to pour it into the river and destroy the barrel.

He let Tuomas's pistol fall form his hand, and fled.

The next evening, Tumoas heard a knock on his door, and got up to answer it, bidding his guests to stay, sit. Emppu and Tarja nodded, and Tarja gave him a radiant smile.

When he opened the door, he was confused to find the constable. "Can I help you?" he asked.

He was infinitely surprised when the constable handed him his pistol He looked down at it in confusion.

"There's been a robbery, Tuomas. We found your pistol at the gun shop."

Tumoas looked around the constable, and saw the jail carriage. "No," he breathed. "I didn't…I didn't do it!"

A voice form behind him asked, "Tuomas, how could you?" He turned and saw Emppu standing behind him, Tarja standing up in confusion.

She looked at him, and he knew he couldn't say where he'd been last night.

"What time did this robbery happen?" he croaked, trembling.

"Around mid-night." The constable answered.

Tuomas looked at Tarja again. She had tears in her eyes. He looked at Emppu, whose eyes were burning.

_No. He...couldn't…wouldn't…_

The small smile Emppu gave him said otherwise.

"I'm afraid, Tuomas, you'll need to come with us."

He didn't fight as the constable put the cuffs on. He was shocked, enraged.

_What right have you to be enrage? You slept with his wife!_

The next morning, He stood before the bailiff and the constable, hand cuffed, ragged after a night in the single cell in the station house.

"You stand accused of robbery." The bailiff said. "Do you have an alibi?"

Fighting tears of rage, his heart beating wildly, he whispered, "No." through clenched teeth.

They hauled him to the jail carriage then, to be taken to the jailhouse in the next county. It was through the mountain passage, and it was gong to be a rough ride. But that wasn't what he was concerned about.

Ten years in prison. That's what the bailiff had told him.

Tarja was waiting for him outside the jailhouse. "Tuomas, what's going on?" she asked tearfully. The constable let him pause to speak to her.

"I was wronged, Tarja," he whispered to her softly. "I think…Emppu…"

"I know." She sobbed, flinging her arms around him. "I know."

"I swear I'll come back. I'll be with you again." He whispered into her ear.

"How long?" she said, her expression clearly stating she hardly wanted to know, she was so afraid.

"Ten years." He said, his voice breaking.

"Noooooo…" she keened softly.

"I swear." He repeated.

"I'll wait for you." she said. She held out a small knife, and cut off thin clump of her hair, and pressed it into his palm.

The constable made an impatient sound, and Tuomas touched Tarja's cheek, and then he was pushed into the barred carriage. He braided the piece of hair, tying it on both ends with small strips of cloth from his shirt, and held it tightly.

_Five years later…_

"Letter for you, Tuomas." The warden said, handing him the envelope through the bars, along with his nightly meal.

Tuomas thanked him lifelessly, and then saw the postal mark. Putting the food tray on his bed, he fumbled with the envelope, ripping it open.

The small light from the moon coming in his cell was barely enough, but he read Tarja's handwriting feeling his heart lift a bit.

He had received one letter from Tarja every week for the past five years. They were all stored neatly in a small box the warden had given him. They had been unfolded and read so many times that the paper was soft, and the words on the crease were unreadable.

But that didn't matter. He knew most of them by heart. They all ended the same. _I love you, and I'm waiting._

Tarja looked out the window, and marked the day on her calendar, feeling excitement well in her. It was tomorrow. He got out tomorrow! She had been praying every day, all the time for this moment.

She prepared dinner, and Emppu came home form work. They ate in silence, as usual, until Tarja said, "Tuomas gets released tomorrow."

Emppu's knife clattered to the floor as he dropped it. Mumbling something she couldn't understand, he picked it up.

"Are we going to go see him?" she asked, her voice the slightest whisper.

"No." he said. Then he looked up at her. "I love you, Tarja." He seemed to be pleading with her.

But she already had her train ticket.

When he was asleep, she got up, and left a note she'd written ten years ago, left it where her head would have been on the pillow.

Emppu heard her leave, and then got up. He read the note carefully.

_My dear Emppu,_

_You cannot imagine how I feel, doing this to you. But my heart lies with Tuomas. Truly, I do not hate you for what you did to him. This arranged marriage was not what I wanted. I'm sorry._

_Tarja_

He crumpled the note into his fist, tears falling from his eyes. He took the pistol he's stolen from Tuomas ten years ago and loaded it slowly, painstakingly.

He put the gun to his temple.

And then he pulled the trigger.

The morning they released him, Tuomas expected nothing. When he came out of the jailhouse, clutching his box of letters, Tarja's hair tight in his hand, he thought he was imagining things.

But then she collided with him, hugging him, sobbing into his chest. She looked the same, but older. She was thirty now… he had forgotten that time assed on the outside as well.

The letterbox and hair fell from his hands as he wrapped his arms around her, sobbing as well. "I swore 'd come back to you…and you came to me…" he breathed.

"I've been waiting ten years for this day." She sobbed in reply.

"Emppu?" he asked. She simply shook her head.

A year later, news reached Tarja of Emppu's suicide. The letter fluttered from her hand as she began to cry. Tuomas was in the room in an instant. "What happened?" he asked. "The baby?"

She put a hand over her swollen stomach, and shook her head. "Emppu killed himself…after I left…my mother wrote to me…"

She covered her mouth with her other hand, choking on a sob. "It was my fault. I killed him…"

"It was not you fault." Tuomas said, wrapping her in his embrace. "He didn't have to go so far because you left."

She cried in his arms, ashamed and guilty. "How can you not be glad, Tuomas? You shouldn't be comforting me, you should hate Emppu."

"I don't hate him for what he did." He whispered. He placed a hand over her stomach. "We'll honor him by naming the baby after him."

Tarja nodded. It was the right thing to do.

The baby was fussing again. Tarja went over to the cradle, and, rocking it gently, began to sing softly. It was the lullaby that always quieted baby Emppu, no matter what.

"Over the hills and far away…he swears he will return one day… As sure as the rivers reach the seas…back in his arms he swears she'll be…"

-fin-

**A/N: **I hope you enjoyed it…I know it wasn't very good…but reviews would be appreciated.


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